The Endurance of Cold
by Angel Gidget
Summary: My first X-men story in the movie section. In the future, Rogue looks back on the memory of the first person to experience her powers.


Author's Notes: This is my first X-men story in the movieverse. It takes place in the future. And I don't think Bobby, Logan, or Cody shippers will have a problem with it. My inspiration was the beginning of the movie in which Rogue first discovers her powers. Sorry it's so short, but as I said, it's my first time writing in this version of the X-men reality and I still need to get used to it.  
  
Disclaimer: Rights to the characters? Sorry bub, we're all out, will ya take a lousy report card instead?  
  
  
THE ENDURANCE OF COLD  
_________________________  
_________________________  
  
Rogue leaned against the door of the old abandoned base. It had once belonged to Magneto, and was now deserted and in disrepair. It was her 5th mission as an X-man. They had come to Alaska in hopes of finding clues to the old mutant's whereabouts now that he had escaped from his plastic prison. No such luck. If the death-camp survivor had reoccupied this place in any recent time, he had cleaned up after himself well.  
  
She shivered. The cold reminded her of the time when she had taken a trip with Logan to Canada. After looking through some old Weapon X bases one final time, he had taken her to see Niagra falls, and then the Canadian Rockies. If she thought she had been cold then, it was miniscule compared to the frozen temperatures she felt now.  
  
"Won't it be kinda cold?"  
  
She turned automatically. But no one here had said it. Someone else, from her mind, had said it. And it had been long ago.... Suddenly, a great curiosity overcame her.  
  
"Bobby?" She called for her teammate.  
  
"Iceman." He corrected her. Walking up to join her side. He smiled. Rogue had a cute distant look in her eyes. It used to bother him till he had gotten to know her. The look was usually reserved for the times when she would try to convince the voices in her head that she was still the one in control. He figured that it must be Magneto that she was trying to discern the motives of this time. But he couldn't have been further from the truth.  
  
"Bobby," she asked again, "If we hadn't became X-men, Ah mean--if we were still in school--would we be in college right now?"  
  
He was surprised by her question, but continued smiling. "Reckon so." He smirked, immatating her speaking mannerisms. "We'd probably have skipped a year--'found ourselves' and all that junk--but, yeah. We'd be college freshman. Not that Professor X is gonna stop educating us or anyth..."  
  
"Thanks, Bobby. Ah was jus' wonderin'."  
  
The boy's smile was replaced by a similar curiosity. "Why do you ask?"  
  
Rogue struggled for the words.  
  
"Niagra Falls...up the Canadian Rockies...and only Five hundred miles to Anchorage."  
  
Now she was scarring him. "Rogue?"  
  
"Those were the same words Ah said ta mah boyfriend that last time Ah saw him. He asked me if it would be cold. Ah called him stupid and said that otherwise it wouldn't be an adventure. Ah see what he meant now. It was cold...and still is."  
  
Bobby regained his composure. "So, was he planning to go with you?"  
  
"Yeah. He asked when Ah was gonna do it, an' Ah told him it'd probably be after high school--some time before college."  
  
"You think that he might still be trying to go through with the trip after the breakup?"  
  
She turned to look at him, a sad, lonely look on her face. "Bobby?"  
  
"Yeah?" Had he said something wrong?  
  
"Everybody remembers what it was like when their powers first manifested."  
  
"Oh."   
  
'IDIOT!' he berated himself. "Rogue, I'm so sorry...!"  
  
"S'alright. It doesn't really hurt so much anymore. Ah think...Ah think he'd be proud o' me."  
  
Bobby headed back to give her privacy. "I think so too, Rogue. I mean, who wouldn't be?"  
  
She smiled as he left. Then she reached out: searching through the whispers in her mind till she found the faintest of the all. The first.  
  
"Ya are proud of me, aren't you Cody David Robbins?" She smiled to herself. Cody hadn't known what that she would be a mutant. That his Marie would be called a Rogue. That she'd meet wild men and power-hungry despots. That she would become an X-man and save the world. He would never know any of that. And yet, somewhere within the depths of her own mind, he was proud of her just the same. That she had endured all that cold so well and for so long. And she reminded herself of this, as she whispered long-forgotten names into the night.  
  
  
____________  
Author's Note: Please review.(and maybe check out my other stories and website too ^-^) 


End file.
